first lady to infightinging with the president's staff. hope you had great weekend. nice to have you with us today. i'm thomas roberts. time quickly running outs, shaking hands and kissing babies and making direct eye contact with new hampshire voters has never been more important for the men trying to secure the gop nomination to be president. mitt romney remains the leader in the granite state. it's only after 11:00 a.m. on the east coast and right now romney is prepping for his second event of the day. a comment on the trail earlier today could be come back to bite him. >> the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. it means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. if someone doesn't give me good service i need, i want to say that i'm going to go get someone else to provide that service to me. >> that could present an opening for romney's rivals who are hoping a strong finish tomorrow

could pay off dividends in south carolina and beyond. nbc's ron allen is live in hudson, new hampshire, this morning. what else are we hearing from romney's camp this morning and are candidates trying to take him down a peg as they move around the state as well? >> reporter: the romney campaign is trying to stay on message about jobs and the economy, which is his strong suit. that's why he's going to be here at a metal fabricating plant in southern new hampshire. he's here to talk about creating jobs and that's the backdrop for that. there's a new poll out this morning that provides interesting information. it has romney up by 33 and ron paul in second with 20 points. jon huntsman is at 13 and newt gingrich is in fourth at 11%. and gingrich had had warning for romney on what he sees in the polls. >> if anything i think his

position is more precarious this morning. he may be moving toward a weak finish. >> reporter: romney of course is still way up and this is always his race to lose and gingrich is concerned about a weak finish as well. some of the candidates like gingrich and santorum and others are focused on south carolina, the next race because romney is so far ahead here this is certainly his race to lose. >> ron allen in new hampshire this morning. thank you, sir. i appreciate it. after surviving several verbal messages unscathed, mitt romney for the first time took a few shots to the chin. take a look. >> can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney. the fact is you ran in '94 and lost. >> if his record was so great as governor of massachusetts, why didn't he run for re-election? if you didn't want to stand before the people in massachusetts and run on your record, if it was that great,

why did you bail out? >> you've been running for years and years and years. the idea that suddenly citizenship showed up in your mind just level with the american people. you've been running since the 1990s. >> let's talk to our panel this morning. our executive director for politico and a fellow at the eisenhower institute and contributor to huffington post. who knew that pious baloney was on the brunch menu for sunday morning. do you think latest numbers we'll see in new hampshire show a dip in romney's ratings with ron paul and huntsman seeing direct results of the attacks of sunday morning. >> he still benefits tremendously from the fact that conservatives are divided about the alternate to mitt romney. i think the biggest threat to mitt romney right now is not a specific rival but what we call the bain bomb. you have every campaign including the obama campaign hitting him over his tenure at bain capital. if that starts to resonate and

if newt gingrich spends millions on that topic in south carolina, you may see an affect on his poll numbers here. >> jennifer, romney owns a double digit lead right now. as you know for new hampshire they like to give surprises. past surprises john mccain shocking pollsters. do you see jon huntsman and even rick santorum pulling off a feat like that? >> i think there will be a surprise of some sort. it looks to be who will come in second. i think that huntsman had some serious hits on romney and really gained points with voters on the trail and in the debate when he said this is what's wrong with our nation and why we're divided as a comeback to romney. i think you have to watch huntsman closely. can he take momentum in the final few days and turn it into

a surprise second and get inf e infused with cash and go on to south carolina. santorum surge has been depleted. the question is can huntsman catch ron paul? >> as you brought up the bain bomb talking about newt gingrich going nuclear if you will on mitt romney when it comes to south carolina because gingrich superpac called winning the future spending over 3 million bucks in south carolina on new ads, hitting the airwaves today, i want to show everybody one of them now. at least a little portion of it. take a look. >> mitt romney became ceo of bain capital the day the company was formed. his mission, to reap massive rewards for himself and his investors. >> they don't care who i am. >> he's for small business. no he isn't. >> we want to note that nbc universal and bain capital are owners of the weather channel. could bain turn the tide if it resonates with voters of south carolina? >> i still think it feels a

little bit late. there's not really a conservative to rally around. it is interesting. it's coming from conservatives, from republicans, and they are saying you are misleading people about your tenure at bain. you looted the companies. those are words of newt gingrich. cost people jobs. now you're exaggerating your success. if that message starts to resonate, particularly with working class whites inside the republican party who are a dominant part in south carolina, it could have an effect but they have to have somewhere to go and there's not a clear place for people who don't like romney to go. >> i don't agree completely. i think undecided voters make up half of the electorate right now and you could see people going for huntsman and see them going for gingrich who has been very aggressive in the final closing hours of this primary. i think the race now is for south carolina and if romney can't come out number one in south carolina, this thing could go on for a long time. with gingrich pledging to stay in, i think we could see a long way even a brokered convention. >> all eyes on who comes in

first but who comes in second in new hampshire and we'll see where it goes from there. thanks to both of you. i appreciate your time. >> romney is on the verge of doing something to republican candidate besides an incumbent president has done. that's win iowa and new hampshire back to back. conservatives don't support him and granite state voters are taking notice of that. many say they are troubled by the disconnect between campaign rhetoric and harsh economic reality. >> i'm looking for somebody who would be a leader and able to call upon this country because we're in some real dire straits right now. >> i don't know that any one of them can say there will be jobs for these young people. they can say it. will it happen? >> this is america. we're struggling. and it requires everybody. no matter what political party you are.

i'm tired of obstructionists. i'm tired of that. >> talking about disconnect between campaign rhetoric and harsh economic realities that truly face this country right now. we have a columnist for the new hampshire union leader joining us now. the publisher of your paper wrote another scathing op-ed on mitt romney calling him the worst possible candidate and a disaster calling him plastic and desperate. why is the union leader so determined, so determined to stop romney when it comes to taking the granite state? >> well, i think that romney is acceptable to a lot of voters in new hampshire even among those for whom he's no better than second choice. conservatives are looking for an alternate to mitt romney and they've been splintered in the process all along. >> paper is in support of newt gingrich slamming romney right and left. is this further fraying of the party itself talking about that fracture? >> you know, i think there's

talk of divisions is overstated. ronald reagan holds the record in new hampshire for margin of victory in the new hampshire primary back in 1980 he won the primary by 27% of the vote. yet he only got just under 50% of the vote. even in 1980, ronald reagan half of the republican voters preferred somebody else. yet he went to be one of the most successful presidents ever. republicans have a desire to defeat barack obama in november. >> they refer mitt romney to the ma'am who can't get above 25%. doesn't that prove divisions? >> this is a multicandidate race. there are seven candidates. six major candidates. getting 40% or even a quarter of the vote is a pretty big number. john mccain won this primary four years ago by 6%. that was considered a very solid win. he was in the upper 30s. mitt romney is likely to finish at least as high as that and probably higher on tuesday. >> a win is a win. that's for sure. thanks for sharing your insight

with us. i appreciate it. he's known for holding little back. that's new jersey governor chris christie. he went a few rounds with an occupy protestor during a romney event in new hampshire last night. this all began as the protester started to chant christie kills jobs. take a look. >> you know, some may go down tonight but it ain't going to be jobs. if she wasn't so blinded by her barack obama induced anger, she would know american jobs are coming back when mitt romney is the next president of the united states. >> unscripted moment on the trail there. three separate sets of occupy protesters interrupted that event last night. >> i want to be very clear with the people here in new hampshire in this country. i will always put my country first. >> jon huntsman defending his post in the obama administration. could this be a struggling point? a controversial new book about the first couple including michelle obama's initial

reservations and changing role within the white house. a little new hampshire trivia for you. who holds the record for winning the most primaries in the granite state? bring you the answer later this hour. [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. ♪ [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first on the side. from honey nut cheerios

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>> do you need people to drop out of this race to pass up mitt romney? >> it would be nice if everybody did. sure. if anybody wants to say rick is the guy, i would take it. >> i never quit a day in my life. i never quit in the face of adversity and i'm not about to quit on america. >> candidates making their closing arguments. what comes first? your party or your country? one of the defining moments of sunday's nbc facebook debate. a heated exchange between mitt

romney and jon huntsman. >> you criticize me while he was out raising money for serving my country in china. yes under a democrat. like my two sons are doing in the united states navy. they're not asking what political affiliation the president is. i want to be very clear with the people here in new hampshire and this country. i will always put my country first. >> i think the decision to go and work for president obama is one which you took. i don't disrespect your decision to do that. i think it's most likely that the person who should represent our party running against president obama is not someone who called him remarkable leader and went to be his ambassador in china. >> this nation is divided, david, because of attitudes like that. >> that was the moment right there. let's bring in our panel this morning. ed rendell and doug high. great to have you with us.

doug, i want to start with you. one of the critiques of huntsman is a lack of headliner moments like that one. he tends to stay above the fray. not picking fights. politico saying in this debate he managed to muster a strong version of his statesman above the fray approach. was that huntsman's turning point in new hampshire and where can he take it from there if so? >> we haven't seen much of jon huntsman have moments in the debate and this was a strong moment for him. the first one we've seen. the challenge is there's not a lot of time. voting happens tomorrow in new hampshire. that's not a lot of time to transition and really have any kind of a surge. it will be interesting to see where he really ends up. >> governor rendell, new jersey governor chris christie backing romney fired back at huntsman last night saying this. take a look. >> i would be kind of pissed if i were barack obama. i mean, i give this guy a job. he's over in china supposedly representing my administration when you know the whole time

he's planning to run for president. >> as we look at that, do you think this kind of attack from the romney campaign is going to backfire and also in your estimation do you think that it also tells us that they are concerned about jon huntsman if they're going to have chris christie out there trying to bat him down. >> well, sure. i think at this point the romney campaign is concerned about anybody who shows a little bit of signs of life. the perfect scenario for them is for mitt romney to get 40% of the vote on tuesday and for huntsman, paul, santorum, and -- help me out. i'm having a rick perry moment. >> rick perry you're thinking? >> no. he's not in there. gingrich. for them to all come in in the mid teens. then romney will have a 20-point victory and will huntsman surge a bit? sure. then he has to go to south carolina. they are both right here. jon huntsman is right. what's wrong about this country is we can't come together and

republicans can't work for democrats and vice versa. we need those coalitions if we'll ever get problems done. the romney side is right. once you worked for somebody for two years and part of his administration, it's hard to turn around and run for president against that person. there's arguments on both sides. i think there will be a little bit of a bump for governor huntsman. don't know if he can take it with south carolina being the next primary. >> let's look at this with the latest poll showing huntsman gaining ground in new hampshire. under fire by the candidates. do you agree with what the governor is saying about where jon huntsman is going to go with this and can he get into double digits? >> he certainly can get into double digits. i would agree with what the governor said about the argument of working for obama while planning to run. that's something of concern that i've heard from a lot of conservatives. i don't think conservatives and ed rendell go hand in hand but in this circumstance they do.

>> thank you for making time for me today. we have breaking news to pass along right now about a bust. the fbi busting a u.s. citizen for plotting a car bomb attack. he was arrested over the weekend and will make his first court appearance shortly. details in just a few minutes. we're back after this. ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays] when you're responsible for this much of the team... you need a car you can count on. ♪[music plays] whee wheeeeeeeeeeeee! wheeeeeeeeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee!

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for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be. ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu. want to take you now to newt gingrich who is speaking this morning taking his campaign around new hampshire today. a last push talking to people in manchester, new hampshire today. jon huntsman and everyone else has full schedules today. we don't have the huntsman shot. that's newt gingrich speaking in manchester. we've been discussing this morning, mitt romney is enjoying a lead ahead of the new hampshire primary and now the front-runner is seeing that momentum trickle into major

voting states later this month. there's a new quinnipiac poll out has romney holding a double digit lead over republicans in florida a state that many believe could lock up the nomination for the former massachusettgovernor. lenny is the chairman of the republican party of florida. it's nice to have you here. as we talk about new numbers out this morning, 54% of the republican voters in the state say that they still might change their mind when it comes to florida. do you really think there's that much volatility surrounding this or is it that mitt romney is close as thing you're going to get to a sure thing in the state right now? >> i think there's absolutely that much volatility. that's what we've seen this entire campaign season. the volatility doesn't scare me. it's healthy. it says the republican base has been paying atensi ing attentio get through the primary they'll show up on election day and coalesce around our nominee.

volatility speaks of excitement. >> all eyes on new hampshire right now. history is littered with candidates who won in one of those states and didn't become the eventual nominee. in your mind, will florida be where the race is ultimately decided? >> absolutely. i have no doubt that florida will make the decision. florida represents what america has represented from the beginning. we're a melting pot of people of different backgrounds that live here trying to make a better life for ourselves. to win the republican primary in florida, you represent what america stands for. >> it's not just in your state but the latest numbers show governor romney surging in south carolina. when we talk about the south, do you think there's a window for a candidate especially one with a strong conservative background that could still be a problem for romney because i know you are talking about coalescing but there really isn't this true consensus nationally about him being the ultimate candidate when he can't break that 25%

barrier. >> i expect it to remain competitive up through our primary. we're going to have a debate here in jacksonville, florida, on january 26th. republican presidential debate. i expect that debate will help many republican voters make their decisions. i expect this to be volatile in florida right up until the end. >> lenny curry with republican party of florida, thank you, sir. i appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you. always a pleasure. >> after more than 160 campaign events in new hampshire, it appears that jon huntsman is finally gaining the momentum his campaign has always wanted. what his campaign is hoping for or expecting tomorrow. we'll take a look. a new book detailing the first lady's evolving role in the white house and friction with her husband's aides. it's tebow time. another miracle from the denver broncos quarterback. how 316 factored in. it's pretty cool. many women mayt be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food.

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breaking news. the fbi busts a u.s. citizen for planning a car bomb attack. pete williams is live in washington, d.c. to break down details on this one. pete, good morning. >> reporter: this is another fbi sting and the question in these cases is always what would have happened if the fbi would have left these people up to their own devices and would they have been able to succeed or not have the where with all to do it. the bureau says there's no question about his willingness. he's 25 years old. mosoakac is his name. a u.s. citizen from the former yugoslavia. according to court documents about four months ago he asked someone who told the fbi about it where he could get al qaeda flags. this undercover tipster talked to him and he wanted to carry out attacks on specific targets in tampa. ultimately the fbi sent an undercover agent in who met with him and sketched out this plan because he wanted ak-47s, hand

grenades and explosives and wanted to attack a nightclub and a sheriff's office in south tampa and also some businesses. the fbi arrested him after he received what he was told by this undercover operative were actually explosives but which turned out to be inert materials. he's charged with all of these attempts and all of these attempts to set off terror attacks in the tampa area. he told the undercover that he wanted to take hostages perhaps and try to get prisoners released from u.s. custody so he'll appear in federal court in tampa this afternoon at 2:00. as i say, there's always a question in a case like this, would he have been able to get these materials were it not for the undercover operatives. that's a difficult question to ask. the justice department's view on these cases and we've seen many in the past few years when you deal with single people operating on their own, you

never know what they would have been able to do had they been left this to their own devices. >> pete williams in d.c. for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. mitt romney can wake up on wednesday morning with a victory in the new hampshire primary. he's going to be approaching some interesting political ground in the history of presidential campaigns in the hawkeye and granite states. we bring in nbc deputy political director mark murray to explain for us. >> with his victory last week in iowa by the narrowest of marg s margins, mitt romney has the opportunity to pull off a feat that no nonrepublican candidate for president has ever accomplished winning in both iowa and new hampshire. new hampshire voters head to the polls on tuesday with earliest votes cast at midnight. the primary is open to republicans and independents while iowa gets to vote first, the granite state often delivers a different headline. ronald reagan lost in iowa but won in new hampshire. george w. bush carried the

hawkeye state but not the granite state. four years ago, john mccain finished fourth in iowa but triumphed in new hampshire. one reason behind this trend? new hampshire voters traditionally don't want to follow in iowa's footsteps. >> often times you see this split decision because new hampshire republicans look toward that iowa produced candidate and say he's good but his values are not our values. his priorities are not our priorities. >> reporter: the latest example came on the democratic side. barack obama's decisive win in iowa in 2008 was followed just days later by a surprising defeat to hillary clinton in new hampshire. there's one fairly recent exception to this rule. john kerry rode iowa's momentum in 2004 to victory in new hampshire and the nomination. but mitt romney sits in a strong position of winning both. a recent nbc poll finds romney

leading in new hampshire by 20 percentage points. he'll compete against a surging rick santorum and ron paul.

iranian court sentenced an american man to death. he was found guilty of working for the cia in trying to implicate iranian terrorism. we're joined now with the latest on this one. is there a sense that the u.s. is going to get involved in this at all? >> reporter: the state department issued a statement today saying they strongly condemned this death sentence and if he's going to be sentenced to death, iranian authorities should let him go immediately. that call will probably fall on deaf ears in iran but in cases in the past where iranian american citizens have been arrested, the state department has gotten involved and has tried to broker a deal. >> we lost our audio and will

try to get him back to complete this report. offenses are investigating the theft of sensitive items from a military base in washington state. 100 soldiers at joint base lewis mccord were restricted today while working to recover goggles, rifle scopes and other similar steitems. this missing equipment is not considered to be a danger to the public. you know exactly one year to the day she was shot, we're talking about congresswoman gabrielle giffords who took to a stage at a memorial stage last night in arizona. after months of relearning to walk and speak, she crossed to the podium and led the crowd in the pledge of allegiance. six people died in the shooting in a safeway store in tucson. 13 including giffords survived. >> it's now as big as the entire u.s. economy with the national debt topping 15 trillion. as much as all goods and services produced by the u.s. wall street meanwhile is about to take a hit where it hurts most.

bonuses for the fourth quarter are expected to be the lowest since the financial crisis began some three years ago. as for the markets, as people start back to work today, we're seeing red arrows across the board now. it was green arrows just a few minutes ago. volatility on the market boards for this morning. we'll continue to watch it for you. when we go to the world of sports, denver fans probably thinking quarterback tim tebow was a gift from above. he led broncos with an 80-yard touchdown pass in overtime. the thing that has a lot of people talking. tebow threw for 316 yards last night and averaged 31.6 per completion. 316 being tebow's favorite bible verse which is written in his eye black during game. coincidence or something more? one of the most familiar family names in the american political history may soon be back on the ballot in boston. joseph kennedy iii says he's launching an exploratory committee in the hopes of

succeeding massachusetts congressman barney frank. another kennedy is continuing her family's long history of activism. a human rights advocate and founder of robert f. kennedy center for justice and human rights named after her father. you are here in studio with me now. what do you think when you heard your nephew would throw his hat in the ring or open this exploratory committee? >> i think along with all of my family we couldn't be more thrilled. joe is a dynamo. he's a superstar. he went to stanford. he went to harvard law school. he went to the peace corps. he's devoted his entire life to public service. he's been a prosecutor. extremely articulate. he's handsome. he's dynamic. he has public interest at heart. >> you had to throw handsome in there. >> take a look at that guy.

>> when we talk about this, that would be the return of your family to electoral politics since the passing of your uncle. does the family talk about this? obviously joe iii needs to make this decision on his own. as a family does everyone come together? >> everyone comes together behind joe because he just has it all. i think all of us will be working for him and working with him to make that successful. >> how close to a decision do you think he is? >> i think he's very close. >> all right. it means you'll be out on the campaign trail i imagine. >> cannot wait. >> as we mention your family has this long history of activism and right now with something that you're doing that's personal to my own heart is the bullying campaign that you're trying to take to school. explain what your interest is and what you're trying to do. >> this is part of the robert f. kennedy cent

kennedy center kierk to show kids what they can do in their community to stop bullying. >> this is certainly obviously a new venture for what you guys have been doing for so long. what made you want to get involved with this or at least see a specific problem that needed the attention. >> it's interesting. we work on what are traditionally thought of as human rights issues and it occurred to all of us that bullying is a human rights issue that our high school students and middle school students face every single day. so we wanted to bring home to them the issues like voting rights and the issues like freedom of expression and other issues around the world to something that they relate to every single day and of course this is bullying that is something that has really caused so much harm across our country. >> not only as a news consumer but someone that's a parent, has

this become more relevant to you to be aware of this and then try to do something about it and bring and raise awareness about it to turn this around because it seems like it is grown in recent years. >> i think there's been a great -- large deal of emphasis and understanding about it. it's something that every kid faces to a certain extent. i've got three daughters and all of them have seen this with their peers. i think that it's something that there are ways that kids can create change that parents can create change and that schools can create change. >> great to see you today. thanks so much. to joe, we'll say you need to send aunt kerry a thank you e-mail. she did you a good one here. obamas are all the buzz. some of the tension that michelle obama's role caused in the white house. we'll break it down for you

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a revealing new book looks at michelle obama's role in the white house and depicts her with clashes in her husbandry inner circle and paints her as a reluctant first lady. it's called "the obamas." this book depicting the first lady as a reluctant person moving into this new role as first lady saying she even considered delaying the physical move to the white house until the summer after the inauguration. what's your take on the first lady's hesitation at least what's been documented in this book? >> well, it certainly rings true with other first ladies. if you look at the history of first ladies, most of them had this reluctance of assuming this job where you don't get any payment but you certainly get a lot of criticism. i think that's what she's really tapping into. this reluctance that a lot of first ladies has had.

this book rings true. the white house is pushing back against it and pushing back against the writer saying she exaggerated but a lot of chapters that i read ring true. clashes with rahm emanuel. no surprise there. i think mickey mouse would have a hard time getting along with rahm emanuel. no surprise that she also had clashes with him at least according to this book. and robert gibbs comes up as a figure here who also had clashes with the first lady. it's a different portrait of this first lady who is very much crafted this image around childhood obesity and military families and someone who is very put off by politics but here in this book she certainly emerges as a figure who is very protective of her husband and keeper of the flame of her husband's legacy and in that way really trying to protect her husband and also really call out some of the aids to make sure they were up to par. >> book touching on privacy invasion that first family

experienced. a young family living under secret service security making trips to target turning into a press event. how difficult was this transition for the first lady because it seems like she might have been this reluctant person w to come into this new reality. she's tried to normalize it the best that someone in this circumstance can. >> you had one first lady describe the white house as the most expensive penitentiary because it's this fortress. it's very much a bubble. you have seen not only michelle obama but also barack obama chafe against that lack of privacy and the fact that you are living in the spotlight so frequently you have passages in this book that talk about camp david where michelle obama really appreciated privacy she got at camp david. they originally thought for instance they would be able to go back home to chicago quite often. that hasn't happened primarily because even when they go home

to chicago, they have obviously secret service there and people cooking their meals. not like they can go to target or piggly wiggly and get groceries. i think it does show a first lady who has evolved over the last year from a more reluctant first lady to a very, very active first lady who has been able to shape this role as she sees fit according to what her policy interest are. >> let's get into the juice of this book. it discusses clashes in the inner circle of her husband one in particular with chief of staff rahm emanuel. she wanted to get involved with the health care fight but he didn't want her to be compared to hillary clinton when she was first lady. what is her relationship with her husband's advisers transformed into compared to then and now? >> well, rahm emanuel obviously not there replaced by william daley. bill daley owned his first days

in the white house went over to michelle obama office and east wing and reached out to her. they knew each other from chicago. reached out to her and her staff because he wanted to make sure they felt like they were integrated into the workings of the white house. rahm emanuel comes in as someone that clashed with michelle obama. the white house aides i talked to say that part certainly rings true. again, i think this is a white house you saw something of a facelift with the senior staff members after 2010 and turnover with robert gibbs and rahm emanuel there. if you think about the last book that came out about the white house and the transition of the white house around economics, it's a similar narrative. this idea of a white house and a first lady that was in some ways uneasy with this new and huge role she was taking and then over the last years evolving

into a place of comfort and stability and real effectiveness. i think we'll see her a lot out on the stomp for the president because she still remains very much an asset so this white house. >> as you point out, recent polls talk about being an asset. the first lady even more popular than her husband. she launched the fitness campaign for kids. how does the first lady hit her stride just in time for the general election or do you think that this book is going to chip away at that to paint her in a somewhat unappreciative light? >> i think she very much has hit her stride. she'll be very much an asset to this president. a little reluctance on her part to really get involved in 2010 and hit for candidates who were not her husband but she said she's very much all in for her husband. for this re-election. we've already seen her out there at a lot of events raising money and i think that's certainly what she'll continue to do. she's very much involved in health care and this whole idea

of military families and making sure they get cared for around disorder. so we will see an active first lady at the white house, they feel she is an asset and i don't think that the book chips away at that. >> thanks for joining me, i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> and we are going to be talking more about politics coming up, time for results from our trivia question, who holds the record for winning the most new hampshire primaries? i know you've been looking for this on google. the answer is richard nixon. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes.

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welcome back everyone, breaking news, an iranian court

has sentenced an american to dead, the man was found guilty of working for the cia and trying to implicate iranian terrori terrorism. the reports are working on being confirmed that he has been sentenced to death. if true we strongly condemn this verdict that he worked for or was sent to iran by the cia are simply untrue, the regime has a history of holding innocent america americans for political reasons. we ask that he is has legal council and released without delay. we will keep you posted in that happens. >> we have to prove the point of electability, that is why the primary is critically important. having established that and i think we will find that tomorrow night. we can then move to south carolina, but you have to prove

the point that you can move the market. >> that was jon huntsman just a short time ago, he is hoping to be the alternative to mitt romney and he is gaining ground in the began it state after practically living there over the past few months. skipping iowa. we have jo kent to phone. his poll numbers in new hampshire are climbing but does he have the time left to pull this off and come in maybe a close second? >> hi, well the surge is very, very late in the game. we are looking at less than 48 hours until the primary closes and people get the results. and huntsman has started to go aggressive just recently against romr romney. now we are seeing someone go aggressive and he is obviously feeling the pressure of the clock. i do think it could be too little too late given where the surge is at this point.

he is still in the low double digit on this. >> he has put all his eggs in the new hampshire basket. thank you, i appreciate it. >> great, thank you very much. >> that will do it for me today and i'll see you back here tomorrow for the super tuesday primary coverage, until then follow had he on twitter at thomasaroberts. don't go anywhere, because "now" is next. it's powerful relief that works at the site of pain and lasts up to 12 hours. salonpas. now there's no need to hold back. new revolutionary scope dualblast obliterates strong food odors leaving your breath minty fresh. hey. [ male announcer ] so there's no trace of evidence... new scope dualblast.

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